Perceptions of non-pecuniary job quality using linked employer–employee data

We use linked employer–employee data to examine the relationship between non-pecuniary job quality and workplace characteristics in Britain and France: countries with very different employment regimes. Job quality is measured through eight dimensions which are summarized in a synthetic index. We show that firm size is negatively associated with non-pecuniary job quality in both countries, but in France, the association is confined to only the largest firms. Internal labour markets are associated with higher job quality in France along numerous dimensions but do not improve job quality in Britain except on one dimension: they reduce the adverse effects of work on one’s private life.

Do internal labour markets protect the unskilled from low payment? Evidence from Germany

Purpose – Up to date, it remains an unresolved issue how firms shape inequality in interaction with mechanisms of stratification at the individual and occupational-level. Accordingly, the authors ask whether workers of different occupational classes are affected to different degrees by between-firm wage inequality. In light of the recent rise of overall wage inequality, answers to this question can contribute to a better understanding of the role firms play in this development. The authors argue and empirically test that whether workers are able to benefit from firms’ internal or external strategies for flexibility depends on resources available at the individual and occupational level. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Matched employer-employee data from official German labour market statistics are used to estimate firm-specific wage components, which are then regressed on structural characteristics of firms. Findings – Between-firm wage effects of internal labour markets are largest among unskilled workers and strongly pronounced among qualified manual workers. Effects are clearly smaller among classes of qualified and high-qualified non-manual workers but have risen sharply for the latter class from 2005 to 2010. Social implications – The most disadvantaged workers in the labour market are also most contingent upon employers’ increasingly heterogeneous policies of recruitment and remuneration. Originality/value – This paper combines insights from sociological and economic labour market research in order to formulate and test the new hypothesis that between-firm wage effects of internal labour markets are larger for unskilled than for qualified workers.

Dynamics of Skill Transfer Procedures in the Electrical Industry: a comparative study in France and Japan1

French and Japanese firms have been characterised by peculiar employment systems and HR practices, and the dominance of Internal Labour Markets. The demographic context but also successive employee reductions oblige firms to adapt their HR practices and carry out changes. How do these changes of the demographic and economic context affect the process of skill transfer? This paper is a comparative analysis of the dynamics of skill transfer in the electrical manufacturing industry in France and Japan. We underline a common trend toward a formalization of skill transfer procedures and the disconnection between work activities and skill transfer.

Exposure to Global Markets, Internal Labour Markets, and Worker Compensation: Evidence from Canadian Microdata

Because of the fact that globalization seems, in aggregate, to be associated with rising inequality, much of the sociological literature treats the process very critically. Our results suggest a more nuanced approach. Prolonged exposure to export markets is associated with higher pay and both prolonged exposure to export markets and foreign ownership are associated with higher total compensation. Pay is substantially tied to productivity, probably through exposure to international best practices. At the same time, the presence of internal labour market traits is also associated with higher pay and higher total compensation. We conclude that it makes little sense to oppose productivity and power explanations of labour market outcomes; rather, they should be regarded as joint influences on compensation determination, consistent with the broad lesson of a "post" new structuralist sociology of labour markets.